[DesVoeux]

I got into Shadowrun because I was into BattleTech. When I recieved the old BattleTech boxed set as a Christmas present, there was a FASA product catalog inside divided into sections for Star Trek, BattleTech, Shadowrun, and Renegade Legion. I thought Shadowrun looked kind of neat, but didn't end up really thinking about it too much until I found a used copy of Universal Brotherhood at a bookstore and picked it up on a whim. I got hooked into reading Shadowrun sourcebooks, but still didn't end up playing it until years later with 3rd Edition.

[Icarus]

We didn't have enough people for D&D, so we tried it instead.

So unfortunately, I've only played it once. They threatened to do an online campaign, but it never happened, so I'm going to try to GM a game and get us playing again.

Very impressed by the one game we played though.

[Critias]

Taking a break from Christmas shopping in the Florence Mall in 1989, I spotted it on the shelves at a B Dalton bookstore.  I didn't buy it that trip (because, well, I was supposed to be shopping for other people), but scampered back to the mall and bought it a few weeks later, once I'd gotten together an assortment of cash, gift cards, etc, from family members;  bought the core book in January of '90, and haven't looked back.

[Wolfboy]

i literally walked into a 3ed game that had just been started as they crossed over from 2ed.
let me explain:

i forget what year, ('97-'99) but my sister was going to college and i was working and living at home when my sister wanted to go to downtown pensacola for a night out. Now she hated driving in downtown because of the traffic and i agreed to take her so she has me take her to this coffee bar. (the place was unfortunately destroyed by the storm surge of hurricane Ivan) upstairs at this joint she meets her "boyfriend" whom i had no clue about and he and his friends are playing the game. I had never played RPG's before other than video games so i gave it a try and was addicted after the first game.

[savaze]

I miss going to Pensacola... My wife and I would go every weekend right after we got married and get crazy cheap rooms at the naval base, good times! Though I don't miss the over abundance of jelly fish.

[JimJungle]

For me it started in middle school with the SNES game. A friend of mine had rented it from the local movie rental place, (Video Giant). we played it for about 8 hours straight. Since then i've owned it twice and have played it on and off for the last 15 years. Just recently go into the actual Pen/Paper game. Its still one of the funner games for SNES.

[ARCimedes]

I started playing in '89. Back then I was an avid gamer and after a game of some flavor of GURPS my best friend had to leave to another game. I had nothing better to do, so I went with him. It turned out to be Shadowrun. They game me the Ganger Archetype and while I didn't have much to do while all the street sams took their two to three actions before I could do anything it was still a cool game. So I bought the rule book and Street Sam Catalogue and got the rest of my friends hooked.

-ARCimedes

[Wolfboy]

I miss going to Pensacola... My wife and I would go every weekend right after we got married and get crazy cheap rooms at the naval base, good times! Though I don't miss the over abundance of jelly fish.

do you remember a place called The Secret Cafe, or the Daily Grind? thats where i usually went to hang out and/or game, well there and Ground Zero when it was over on Navy Blvd

[GeLrIrToCrH]

Back in the day (let's say 1990) I picked up a compilation strategy guide containing several SNES games & one of them was Shadowrun. All the technical jargon got me. Datajack? Cranial Bomb? My mind dreamed up images of this future tech. Fastforward 9 or 10 years later, I'm 19 and playing GURPS with some new friends. As we were coming to the end of our story we started talking about what else we could play. Someone said Shadowrun and that was it. My friend had a good amount of second edition and we started playing. Next thing I know, I own almost all of the third edition books. We played on and off over the years till life caused us to take a hiatus. I continued to check out the SR website on a regular basis and discovered fourth edition's release. A friend was going to Gencon and I asked him to pick up the core book for me, all the while slowly convincing my old group to get back into it. We've been playing monthly ever since the Denver missions. Um, wait...what was the question?   

[Rascal]

A friend of mine sold me the concept of Shadowrun around 2003. Something along the lines of "It´s like NeoTech (swedish cyberpunkRPG), only with orcs and dragons. You can be a shaman." I fell in love with the game even before playing it, and it remains my very favourite setting even if I´m getting awfully bored with the dice-avalanches of combat...

[Blond Goth Girl]

Years ago, a friend wanted to GM it as a break from Vampire.  I loved the system and setting so I use it.

[DesVoeux]

I fell in love with the game even before playing it, and it remains my very favourite setting even if I´m getting awfully bored with the dice-avalanches of combat...

It's definitely the amazing setting that has kept me loyal, not the mechanics. (Although 4th Edition was a big step in the right direction.)

[Somtaaw0]

I learned of SR from FASA catalogs that came with Battletech products. Don't remember when I first purchased a manual though...had to be around '92 or '93. I still have pieces of that 2nd Ed rulebook (it came apart) though I recently replaced via EBay. I had only played hack 'n slash DnD and tactical combat sims prior to playing SR. I was hooked on the Matrix from the very start.

[Pathica]

I fell in love with the game even before playing it, and it remains my very favourite setting even if I´m getting awfully bored with the dice-avalanches of combat...

It's definitely the amazing setting that has kept me loyal, not the mechanics. (Although 4th Edition was a big step in the right direction.)

Yeah, 100% agreed. The source-books are fun to read almost as standalones. The setting/world/mythology is... thick. I don't even play anymore, but still read/buy the books as escapism/fiction.

(Nudge to devs: You have a good thing, don't flood me with shovel-ware please, please, please!)

[Mara]

The review of second edition in Dragon Magazine WAY back in the day...you know,
when it was not only in dead-tree, but was allowed to admit other game companies
existed.